Elihu spencer



E. SPENCER" Railroad Car Heater.

Patented Dec. 15, 1-36 Wzk 665 65 62 6M i new swa ELII-IU SPENCER, OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.

Letters Patent No. 84,969, dated December 15, 1868.

RAILROAD-CAR-HEATING' APPARATUS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it'known that I, ELIHU SPENCER, of Elizabeth, in the county of Union, and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and improved Mode of Heating and Ventilating Railroad-Cars; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact descriptiop thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawrugs, which are made a part of this specification.

The nature of my invention consists in combining,

with a hollowfurnace grate,- within which air is to beheated, an arrangement of pipes, to automatically supply air to the said grate, and conduct it in a heated state to other parts' of the train, as hereinafter described, the parts being so arranged, that, under ordinary circumstances, the heated air will be discharged at a higher level than that at which cold air enters, so as to cause an active current of air, even while the train is at rest; but, in order to prevent the choking oi the pipes when the track is covered with snow, I provide a supplementary pipe orxpipes, with bell-mouths, above the reach of the snow, to supply air while the train is under motion.

Inthe drawings- Figure 1 represents a vertical longitudinal sec tion of a locomotive and one car, with my invention applied;

Figure 2 is a sectional plan of the heating-apparatus; and

Figure 3, asimuar view of the grate and its accessories, on a larger scale.

A represents a locomotive fire-grate, formed of longitudinal hollow bars, connected by transverse hollow bars at their front and rear ends, and supplied with air at front, through openings 1) I), presented downward.

The air is heated in passing through the hollow grate,

and is conducted backward by pipes (l to registers D, through which it is admitted to the cars as required. Flexible connections, S, are employed, to attach the projecting ends of the pipes, and permit ,sufficient relative motion between them.

To secure an active circulation of air through the pipes by the action of heat, whether the train is in motion or not, the induction-openings b are placed at a lower level than the pipes, and the discharge-openings 0, above the pipes. This result is also promoted by placing the hollow grate itself higher at its rear than its front end, by inclining or deflecting the bars downward toward the front. 7

To prevent the ent-rancevofsnow, when the track is more or less obstructed thereby, I apply valves at c,

and employ, for use in snowy weather, additional pipes B, extending to the front of the engine, and projecting upward, as shown in fig. 1, the air being admitted at (I.

- It will be observed that these supplementary pipes B are only required to act while the train is in motion;

When the train is at rest, any depth of snow on the ground will cause no obstruction to the ingress of air at the depressed mouths .7). My apparatus thus provides an unfailing supply of heated air at all times and under all circumstances.

To prevent loss of heat by radiation, the hot-air pipes may be covered with felt, or other non-conducting material. 1

Having thus described my invention,

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Pat ent, is-

The combined car heating apparatus herein described, consisting of the hollow grate -bars A, depressed indnctionopenings 11, and elevated dischargeports D, adapted to supply air constantly to the cars,

.whether moving or not, and provided with one or more elevated bell-mouthed supplementary pipes B,

for use when the track is obstructed with snow, and

the train under motion, as explained.

ELIHU SPENCER.

Witnesses ALVIN BURT, EDWIN H. GIBBS. 

